


Endings and Beginnings

by twilightfire



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Academy Era, Borderline crack, Community: trekmas, Custody Battle, Divorce, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Non-romantic pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 14:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twilightfire/pseuds/twilightfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim finds Bones curled up on his bed, absolutely depressed and certain that the only relationship he’s ever have is that of a threesome with his booze and his hypospray. For the first time in ages, Jim finds himself actually concerned about another person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Endings and Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [cannedebonbon](http://cannedebonbon.livejournal.com) for day 12 of [happy-trekmas](http://happy-trekmas.livejournal.com)

Jim poked his head in to the study lounge on his dorm floor. “Hey, has anyone seen Bones?”

The various cadets currently studying all glanced up at him, giving him various negative responses before returning to their homework, so Jim sighed and started walking back to his and Bones’ room. He’d checked all of the places Bones would most possibly be, and there was still no sign of him.

Jim pressed up against a wall to allow a small mob of giggling cadets by, gracing them with a wink and a smile. Their giggling only increased as they walked away and Jim made his way to his door.

Scanning his entry card, he walked in only to stop dead in his tracks.

Bones was lying on his bed, taking up as much space as possible. One half-empty bottle of whiskey dangled from a limp hand, while his other arm held an empty bottle of bourbon close to his body. His hand lay on his chest, partially covering a hypospray.

Jim slowly entered the room, staring at his friend and roommate in surprise.

“Bones?”

“Jim! Jim, Jim, Jim! You – you stay away, Jim. You can’t have my hypospray! We’re in a committed relationship!”

Jim paused, halfway done with closing the door behind him. He turned around to look at Bones in surprise and disbelief.

“What?”

“You can’t have my stash, either. It’s mine. All mine.”

“Bones, are you feeling okay? How much have you had to drink?”

Bones glared at Jim through bleary eyes. “Enough to know that I’m not nearly drunk enough,” he slurred.

Jim finished closing the door behind him before he walked over to Bones’ desk and dug around through the mess piled on top of it.

“Jim, Jim, what’re you doing? That’s my desk,” Bones complained, but didn’t move from where he was still sprawled on his bed.

“I’m looking for your tricorder,” he answered, making a face when his hand touched something disturbingly slimy. “Did you get that message Jocelyn left earlier? It sounded kind of important, you weren’t answering your handheld comm., and I couldn’t find you to let you know.”

Bones snorted. “’Course I got it, woman walks away with everything but my bones then decides she wants _those_ , too. All’s I got left is Ben and Jerry.”

Jim grimaced as he found a partially eaten, mold-covered sandwich. “I thought you were a doctor, this cannot be sanitary,” he complained as he threw it away. “Who the heck are Ben and Jerry?”

“Ben is my booze and Jerry’s my…my thingie. My needle thingie.” To illustrate his point, Bones waved his hypospray in the air briefly before letting it fall back to his chest.

“Bones, I’m not the poster boy for health and safety, but even I know that’s not healthy,” Jim pointed out.

“If it was healthy, it wouldn’t feel good,” he retorted. “Don’t listen to the kid, he doesn’t know the love we have for each other,” Bones cooed to his bottle of whiskey, before taking a large swig from it. He didn’t notice when a good portion of the alcohol spilled on his face and the bed instead.

Jim made a triumphant noise as he finally found a tricorder, only to frown when he realized that it was broken beyond repair. He tossed it onto his own desk to fiddle with later, and continued to dig through the mess on Bones’ desk before giving up and checking the drawers instead.

“What happens between you and your comfort objects is none of my business, but you’re really freaking me out, Bones,” Jim admitted, briefly glancing over at the other man before returning his attention to the desk. “Do you even _have_ a working tricorder?” he asked in disbelief as he dug three empty bottles of brandy out of the drawer he was looking in.

“Go away. Leave me to my misery,” Bones grumbled as he rolled onto his side, not even noticing when the rest of the whiskey proceeded to soak the bed.

Jim glanced over once more in worry, only to return his attention back to the drawers. He’d found two more broken tricorders, an old-fashioned picture of Bones’ family with Jocelyn’s face scribbled out in black, their orientation booklet from several months ago, and a desiccated rat carcass. He made a face as he carefully threw the rat away; for a doctor, Bones certainly wasn’t worried about sanitation.

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me…happy, when skies are gray,” Bones warbled.

Jim looked up in surprise at the singing only to see his friend caressing his hypospray and empty bottles of alcohol.

Jim got up from where he’d been crouching next to Bones’ desk, and sat carefully on Bones’ bed. This had gone far enough. He carefully removed the hypospray and bottles from Bones despite the drunken man’s protests, and sat on the bed next to his head.

Jim consciously brought up long-forgotten memories of his mother caring for him when he was sick, and carefully began to stroke his hand through Bones’ hair. Bones was his friend, and he wasn’t going to just stand by and let his friend drink himself to an early grave – although he would probably tease him about the threesome with hyposprays and booze at a later date.

“Want to talk about it?” he asked.

Bones was silent for a moment.

“It’s almost Christmas,” he started.

Jim winced. For some, Christmas was a relatively happy time. He’d always had a fairly good Christmas when he was younger, before he could really understand what was going on. Then, when he was old enough to understand that certain events – such as his birthday and Christmas – were times when his mom mourned his dad the most, they lost their appeal. It had to be even more difficult for Bones.

“Joce, she…she doesn’t want Joanna coming down here. Says they’ve already got plans with Clay, and…” Bones trailed off.

Jim snorted. “And she doesn’t want you coming down to interrupt their festivities?”

Bones nodded despondently.

“That’s absolute shit. How old is Joanna?”

“Jo? She’s, damn, she’ll be coming up on thirteen in January,” Bones sighed.

“Instead of fighting for her, has anyone asked what she wants?”

Bones was quiet.

“Didn’t think so. Bones, sober up and call Jo in the morning. If she can’t come down over Christmas, I’m sure you can still figure something out. Maybe have a joint Christmas-birthday celebration. And maybe before she comes down, we can start getting this place cleaned up, because you are absolutely _disgusting_.”

Despite himself, Bones let out a snort of laughter. “You’re one to talk, kid. Don’t pretend like I haven’t seen that bottom drawer of yours.”

Jim just shrugged. “At least it’s clean. You probably have a rotting dinosaur corpse somewhere in that pile.”

Bones just grinned and closed his eyes. It wasn’t the end, but it was certainly a beginning.  



End file.
